Franklin Hovington (January 9, 1919 – June 21, 1982), also known as Guitar Frank, was an American blues musician. He played the

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

and banjo and sang in the Piedmont blues style. He lived in the vicinity of

Frederica, Delaware Frederica is a town in Kent County, Delaware, United States. It is part of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 774 at the 2010 census. ILC Dover, the company which manufactured the spacesuits for the Apollo and ...

. Hovington was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. On a tip from the folklorist Peter B. Lowry, he was recorded by Dick Spottswood and

Bruce Bastin Bruce Bastin (born 19 September 1939) is an English folklorist and a leading expert on the blues styles of the southeastern states of America, ( East Coast Blues and Piedmont Blues). In 2022, his publication ''Red River Blues: The Blues Traditio ...

, with an

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

released on

Flyright Records Flyright Records is a British record label incorporated in 1970 by Mike Leadbitter, Simon Napier, and Bruce Bastin. It specializes in blues by British musicians, though it issued some American jazz discs, including Ralph Sutton and Hoagy Carmic ...

in the UK (available on CD) and on Rounder Records in the US. Selections were recorded by Axel Küstner and Siggi Christmann for German release, most recently issued by

Evidence Records Evidence for a proposition is what supports this proposition. It is usually understood as an indication that the supported proposition is true. What role evidence plays and how it is conceived varies from field to field. In epistemology, evidenc ...

in the US. He disliked travel and did not play away from his Delaware home, afraid that he would lose his welfare support payments, and so did not get the publicity from music festival appearances that his talent deserved.

References

External links

Illustrated Frank Hovington discography
1919 births 1982 deaths Country blues musicians Piedmont blues musicians American blues guitarists American male guitarists Singers from Delaware Musicians from Reading, Pennsylvania Singers from Pennsylvania 20th-century American singers 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Delaware Guitarists from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male musicians {{US-guitarist-stub